By 2018, the Navy hopes to deploy four of the vessels in order to
upgrade the capability of the Navy's Seventh Fleet.

The LCS was intended to be the Navy's futuristic super-ship. It
was envisioned as the first US combat vessel with the ability to
remove underwater mines and take on swarm attacks of small craft
in coastal waters and fight rival battleships in the
open seas — all while being difficult to detect on radar,
compared to traditional destroyers.

But the Singapore deployment shows that the US military has still
found an important use for the once-cutting-edge ship. In Asia,
the vessels will help counter China's attempts to establish
itself as the unquestioned Naval power in the Pacific.

"When we have four LCS ships here by 2018, two of them will be
the Freedom class while the other two will be the Independence
class," Rear Admiral Charles Williams
told Jane's. The two variants of the LCS will allow the Navy
to more effectively project power throughout the region.

Shortcomings aside, the Independence-class LCS has "the largest
flight deck on any of our ships short of the aircraft carriers
and large deck amphibious ships," Williams said.

This expansion of Naval vessels
ported in Singapore is an outgrowth of the US's "pivot to Asia,"
a shift in military assets aimed at
reassuring US alliesin the
region against a rising and expanding China. Singapore provides a
safe and strategically located harbor for US vessels that is
close to the current territorial disputes in the South China
Sea.

So far, China has constructed over 1.5 square miles of artificial
islands on top of reefs in the South China Sea.

The islands will serve as
forward operating bases for the Chinese military. Various
uninhabited reefs are being outfitted with ports and refueling
centers for ships while at least two
airstrips have been built on the islands. Once construction
is complete, Beijing will be able to use the bases to project
their military force throughout the South China Sea.

The expansion of Chinese construction in the South China Sea is
kicking off a series of territorial disputes with Beijing's
neighbors in the south, all of whom also have competing maritime
claims to the reefs and islands:

Mike Nudelman/Business Insider

Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, and
the Philippines all have military bases within the South China
Sea on islands that those countries control.

US ships in Singapore may
also play a more active role in fighting piracy in the
Strait of Malacca, located off the coast from Singapore,
which is the world's second busiest oil
chokepoint.